Oh The Craziness…

This weekend was jam-packed with action and fun for us!  First we went to our little cousin Peyton’s first Birthday party.  No pictures but the kids had fun celebrating with him.  Next we headed to The Matteson’s for Jaxon’s 1st Birthday!

I really don’t know how this little guy turned a whole year old already, but it happened right before our eyes!  Nicki hosted an awesome 49ers party and we all had a blast. 

 

We were out pretty late that evening, but there was no time to rest the next day because we had even more fun things to do!  We headed over to the highschool to see Daddy and all the other bikes that rode in the Frazier-Mason Memorial Ride.  I love my view looking down at these two in their cool ride:

And although it made me nervous, I liked the view of watching these two of my favorite boys…my husband and my brother…riding to our next destination.

Yes I was snapping pictures in the car…I was bored because these two were trying to catch up on sleep so I had no one to talk to!

Wow, safety first, Mother of the year over here, I’m totally telling on myself with this picture.  Okay moving on…

Our next stop was to Carter’s Birthday party!  Of course I didn’t get any pictures of the Birthday boy, but the kids always have fun playing over there!

We had so much fun partying it up all weekend, but then it was back to the serious stuff on Monday!

Monday afternoon we headed to Richmond for Ryder’s routine kidney check-up.  They took a sonogram of his bladder before and after going potty, they showed me on the pictures how thick and muscular his bladder wall is…this is a residual affect from his blockage prior to birth.  The sonogram of his kidneys came back great as he didn’t see any dilation at all!  So basically his kidney’s are healing perfectly and his bladder issue is something he will live with and learn to control.  He is going to have the ability to hold his pee for a long time and then not really feel the sensation of completely emptying.  Right now he tells me pretty frequently that he has to go, so it’s like he only lets enough out to where he doesn’t feel it anymore, so it fills up a lot sooner and he has to go again.  His kidney doctor was happy to hear that and said it’s better for him to go a little bit a lot than to hold it for a long time because that will give his kidney’s a chance to resort back to what they know and start to reflux again.  He said we’re at a crossroads right now, everything looks so great and could be on a great path to no issues from here on out, but we have to pay close attention for any unexplained fevers or bad smelling urine because now that Ryder has a choice on whether he’s going to go or hold it…it could mean trouble.  He said “I see he has some contrary in him, so let’s hope he doesn’t start to purposely hold his pee and not go”…haha yeah I’d say he has some contrary in him!

What’s today, Tuesday?  Losing track here.  Today Ryder had 2 back-to-back therapy appointments scheduled, OT and then PT.  Just as I was getting ready to leave work to go get him I got a call from Nana that Ryder’s cast had fallen off!!  I called Miss Abby and she rearranged her schedule so that she could put a new one on immediately.  This led to the “Day 1 of casting” emotions all over again, so it has been an interesting evening.  I know he’ll wake up tomorrow in good spirits though and we’ll just keep on moving…

There’s never a dull moment! 

Elijah’s Birthday Party

I can’t believe this little guy is turning 1 already!  He has grown into such a handsome, funny boy and we were so happy to be able to celebrate his 1st Birthday with him.  Happy Birthday Elijah!!

 

Ryder played and played and played…then stopped to eat a cupcake!

Maisy had her homegirl Callie there to chill with.

Birthday party season has officially begun :)

Sundays

I'm posting about Sundays on a Wednesday. Maybe because this week has been so busy that I'm just now getting around to it. Or maybe because its only half way through the week and I'm wishing so bad that it was Sunday instead! Our Sundays have come to be my favorite day of the week...Church and then lunch with the family at the garage. The kids play and get tired out just in time for a nice long nap, which means relaxing time for Mommy & Daddy. Oh how I love Sundays!

This Sunday we had a nice visit from the Vathes family. Madalynn is so cute and absolutely hilarious, it was nice getting to spend time with them.

I never remember to grab my camera, so here are some cell phone pics of our Sundays at Poppy's garage...usually with us, Gregg, Catherine & her girls.

A Little Get Together

Or maybe it’s called a big get together with lots of little kids!  Remember at the beginning of 2011 when it seemed like everyone around me (including myself) was pregnant?  Here is the partial result of that:

Today we finally got most of our 2011 baby crew together :) 

Remember when the big kids were our baby crew?!  Now it is almost impossible to try to get them in the picture!  This was the best I could do, and gives you a glimpse of just how chaotic group pictures have become. 

Maisy & Jaxon <3

 

Maisy & Callie

Carter, Ryder, and Owen

When the babies are up running around with the big kids, I think us Momma’s are gonna be in BIG trouble!

Pretty Girls

Maisy & Callie got some “girl time” on Sunday to hang out together and get to know each other.  It’s funny how now they can look at and acknowledge each other.  Won’t be long and they’ll be running all over the place, not even stopping for enough time to take a picture like their big brothers!  Such pretty little girls :)

Kids & Friends

Some random info & pictures of the kids I haven’t posted yet:

Taking pictures of Maisy in her bath the other day, my flash washed this picture out, but look at these blue eyes:

Maisy has really been loving her activity mat now that she is grabbing at her toys:

 

She also likes sitting in her Bumbo seat (whenever big brother gets out of it to actually give her a turn).

Ryder has started working on kicking a ball with his left leg in therapy, it’s pretty difficult for him to do right now, but it’s only a matter of time before he’ll master this too.  Miss Stacey has officially made her blog debut now :) 

Ryder is doing great with this new therapist, she works him hard and always gives me good ideas to work on at home with him.

 

I wanted to post a few things about some of our friends too:

We went to a vineyard on Sunday to see the place where our friends will be getting married at next year.  Congrats to Justin & Jenn, we’re SO excited for the wedding!

A HUGE congrats to DIANA too who just got engaged over the weekend!!!!  Sooooo exciting :)  Another wedding next year to look forward to!

I haven’t said anything about the tragedy/blessing that affected the Matteson family last week, but it hasn’t left my mind since that horrible phone call last Monday that Matteson had been hit by a car on his motorcycle.  Thank God he is alive and okay, this truly is a miracle, but he has a long road to recovery ahead of him.  If you can, please keep Nicki, Matteson, Mikayla, & Jax in your prayers.  I know they are all rejoicing in the fact that he is still here with them, but it can’t be easy seeing your husband/daddy in pain and have to go through surgery’s and rehabilitation.  I’m sure they can’t wait to get him home and all be together again!

Another family that is so special to us that really needs prayer right now is the Darago’s.  James was diagnosed with cancer only a few months ago and is really fighting a hard battle.  It breaks my heart to see them going through this, they have 4 young children and are such good people.  You can read his story here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jamesdarago .

Okay I know this post was alllll over the place, but most of the time so is my brain!  :)

Labor Day Weekend

What a nice long weekend we had!!  It started with lots of action and ended with a nice relaxing day at home.  I wish we could have every Monday off work! 

Saturday Alan had a moving job in the morning but that evening we went out on a date!  Ryder went to hang out with Nana and our friend Mary came over to stay with Maisy so that Me & Alan could hit the town.  Hitting the Town these days has turned into dinner and a nice long trip to Walmart to restock our groceries!  Okay so maybe it wasn’t the most romantic thing to do, but it felt good to shop at a leisurely pace with no interruptions.

Sunday morning we went to Church for Jaxon’s dedication.

It was great to be a part of this special day for our friends!  The service was so good, as always!

My boys looked so handsome:

 

Afterwards they had everyone over for lunch.  Maisy got passed around, not just to the girls this time, but to the kids too!

 

This would be what happens when I leave baby girl alone with these crazy women:

Attack of the hairbows!!!  Yikes!

Ryder played so hard with all of his friends that I barely saw him the whole time!  The only picture I got of him was when he finally sat still…not even 2 minutes after pulling out of their driveway:

In typical Maisy fashion, she needed a break from her carseat so we stopped by CJ & Angela’s on the way home.  They were hosting a fantasy football draft so Alan got to see some of his old buddies from school.  After the draft they played a game of football, the difference between the game now and 10 years ago…they were all a lot more out of breath!

Me & Maisy enjoyed visiting with Angela & Callie

 

And Ryder had fun playing with Carter (except for that one fist fight they got into…yes, they were throwing punches and the Daddy’s had to break it up!)

They might fight over toys, but one thing they do agree on is trying to beat Alan up!  They love to team up against him.

 

Since the kids got to bed late Saturday night & Sunday night, they made up for it by sleeping in late Monday morning.  Maisy didn’t wake up to eat until 7am, then went right back to sleep until we all woke up at 10:30am!!  That was the latest we have slept since we had kids…it was a nice relaxing start to a peaceful day at home. 

That was our Labor Day weekend!